Downey will pull one of its fire engine from service to cut costs

DOWNEY - In an effort to help balance the city's budget, Downey city officials have moved one fire engine out of service, saving the city $1.8 million.

"The council wanted to balance the budget, and all departments were asked to make cuts," said Fire Chief Lonnie Croom. "We looked at every part of our department and the only way that could make sense was cutting an engine to meet those requirements."

The engine from Fire Station 1, 12222 Paramount Blvd., was taken out of service on July 1 for the new fiscal year. The city hopes it will save money in salaries and benefits, Croom said.

Officials say no layoffs are planned. Early retirement packages will be offered until the end of the year.

Officials agreed that the elimination would be the best feasible option to help preserve the city's fiscal health without dramatically affecting public safety.

City officials and the Firefighters Association, the union that represents firefighters, came up with the agreement that was approved at last week's council meeting.

According to City Manager Gilbert Livas, the city's loss of redevelopment money "essentially took a couple of million dollars away from our revenues."

The city also saw a 20 percent reduction in its federal community development program and 50 percent reduction in the federal home program.

"It was a perfect storm all coming together," he said.

Although residents should be concerned, they shouldn't worry, Croom said.

"Data will continue to be taken to ensure emergency response time doesn't put the community at risk," he said.

Trained emergency medical technicians, paramedics and firefighters will continue to respond to calls, Croom said - though response times may be longer.

"There will still be a truck company in that same station that will respond in place of that engine," he said. "We're still going to get there quickly."

Downey has 58 firefighters.

Though no firefighters have yet accepted the retirement offer, the staff must be cut to 54, officials said.

If the retirement offer is not accepted by enough personnel, the city's savings would be reduced to $1.6 million (the city would save through overtime and other costs associated with operating the engine).

While many firefighters aren't happy with the city's decision, it was unavoidable, Croom said.

"They don't agree with it and they believe it puts citizens at too much of a risk," he said. "I think all of us would agree that we don't want to cut services in the city. But, due to the economy, we have to do a lot of things we don't want to do."

The cuts will bring changes, but until all the data is collected, no one knows exactly what those changes will be, Croom said.

"We do expect an increase in response time, but to what extent we don't know yet," he said. "The gain outweighed the risk and we are still going to be operating, in large part, the way we did before."

Despite the cuts, firefighters will still have the resources to tackle their primary function in the community, Livas said.

"Nobody likes having to do this. This is a very difficult decision. We never want to have to cut any services of any kind," he said.

Public safety will remain the No. 1 priority, Croom said.

"At no point do we want to put our citizens at risk," he said. "We want to meet the demand, but, if at any time we are not meeting that demand, I'll do what I can."

But the decision may not be a final one, Livas said.

"As we move through this process and as the numbers come in - if there's any indication that things are not working out as we anticipated, we will certainly review this ... and look at the possibility of reconsidering our decision and bringing back an engine if we need to."